Libertarian Party USofA

Fully Informed Jury

cannabis in Montana

Led by the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry, enemies of the valuable cannabis plant have kept it expensive in both money and risk to individual liberty for over 50 years.

A plant that costs no more to grow than basil or oregano sells for 100 times what those non-prohibited herbs do. The worst part of this irrational war are the many costs to our society.

Topping the list is our awful incarceration rate. A close second is that 99 dollars of the product cost goes to organized crime… with huge negative implications for liberty of all, even those not involved in either side of cannabis transactions.

The United States is home to less than 5 percent of the world’s population but nearly 25 percent of its prisoners, in part because of the overly harsh consequences of a drug conviction. Many of the 2.3 million people behind bars (and 5 million under criminal justice supervision) in this country are being punished for a drug offense. If every American who has ever possessed illicit drugs were punished for it, nearly half of the U.S. population would have drug violations on their records. – http://www.drugpolicy.org/

Make no mistake, a felony cannabis possession conviction destroys a life forever. Well beyond the thousands of days stolen from every otherwise productive and free person ( + family, community, business), felony convictions and listing of “prisoner” in their work experience resume slams doors on many good job opportunities.

This because some moralists, opportunists and profiteers have commandeered the political process for their advantage.

The war on drug users does not, has not, nor will ever prevent drug use. That has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt for FIFTY YEARS. Look at the article below and Gallup poll results that just came out. One out of every eight adults will admit over the phone to smoking marijuana.

How destructive is it that one out of every eight people in your community are at risk of being yanked out of their lives forever?

Past President Jimmy Carter cured his cancer with cannabis. Should he have been sent to die of cancer in prison instead?

The current President of the United States has smoked pot (may still). His daughter just got caught doing it. Regardless of whether you think they should be in prison or not, the double standard proves the hypocrisy of this war on drug users. Someone gets to pick winners and losers based on a criteria other than the supposed one of saving them from the evils of weed.

In spite of (unconstitutional) federal laws against it, the states are marching forward in liberating the people within their boundaries.

The incumbent has proven that this particular war on Montanans either amuses or profits him. The Republican challenger wants to treat it as a disease, with treatment programs to supplement incarceration programs.

Neither of their options are right, correct, positive, or proper.

Now on to the news report that shows just how many of us would be taken down if the feds could have their perfect world.

(I, by the way, do not use cannabis, though were my skin’s genetic disposition blossom into melanoma I would sure want to use the #1 most successful treatment world-wide: cannabis oil)

With 37 states having some form of medical marijuana, and four states as well as Washington D.C. having legalized cannabis for adults 21 and over, stigma around admitting use is dropping as well.

“Keeping in mind that all of your answers in this survey are confidential, do you, yourself, smoke marijuana?,” Gallup asked 1,0243 adults by phone in July.

Gallup’s number indicates about 33 million Americans smoke marijuana, a federal crime that generates about 700,000 arrests each year. By contrast, there are about 40 million cigarette smokers in the U.S.

The poll has a margin of error of five percent at the 95 percent confidence interval.

Nine states vote on cannabis law reform this year, and “2016 could mark a significant legal shift on the issue. Recreational use could become legal in as many as nine states (up from only four today), and medicinal use could become legal in an additional four states,” Gallup’s Justin McCarthy writes.

“because a clear majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana and more states are considering it, it’s likely that use of and experimentation with marijuana will increase,” stated McCarthy.

Recent studies have shown cannabis is not so harmful. Lifelong cannabis consumers are healthy. As legalization has spread teen use has remained flat, or in some cases dropped.

Age and religiosity were key factors in cannabis use, Gallup reported. Adults under the age of 30 report currently using pot at double the rate of older age groups. Just two percent of weekly churchgoers smoke weed, versus 14% of seldom or never-attenders.

Baby boomers show the highest rate of ever having tried weed “because they’ve had more years to do so [and perhaps] generational cultures and attitudes toward marijuana that have shifted over time.”